How Errors & Omissions Coverage Protects Digital and Creative Companies

Certain professions require Errors & Omissions (E&O) coverage: doctors, lawyers, accountants, and engineers, to name a few. Also called professional liability insurance, this type of policy protects assets in the face of negligence, misrepresentation, and inaccurate advice. An important complement to general liability insurance, it covers work-related outcomes instead of broader accidents and mishaps.

But whether you’re legally required to have E&O coverage to operate or not, it’s a smart idea to have it. Forgoing this crucial coverage can result in financial ruin if a client, customer, or partner sues. As Business.com notes, claims against service providers can range from “failure to perform professional duties” to “omitted important information or facts.”

Does that sound like something that could happen in your line of work?

If you work in a digital or creative field, the answer is yes.

Although you’re not performing surgery or defending someone in court, you’re still impacting people’s bottom lines. That in and of itself makes you vulnerable to claims of violation of good faith and fair dealing, among others.

What are some of the risks for those operating within media and technology fields? One Forbes contributor highlights a few examples showing when professional liability insurance would come in handy:

• Your clients rely on your platform or software to manage their workflows
• Your creative content repurposes or incorporates someone else’s content
• An error on your side directly costs someone else money
• You work with “intangible property” often

Let’s say you work at a startup that’s built a cloud-based tool to help companies manage their data. It’s all going well until one day, your technology glitches. Suddenly, your clients can’t access the information they need to create reports and monitor progress. They’re losing income by the hour during this unfortunate downtime—and you’re technically responsible. In this case, you could face one or more lawsuits from clients seeking damages for lost income and more. These legal battles tend to be expensive, time-consuming, and detrimental to your reputation. Having professional liability insurance would cover the cost of lost income, keeping you out of court and out of bankruptcy.

Media firms can protect their operations with media liability coverage, a type of E&O insurance. This protects publishers and broadcasters of content against named perils like “defamation, invasion of privacy, infringement of copyright, and plagiarism.” The key is having this protection in place before you go public with your work. Having professional liability insurance squared away before you release media helps mitigate the financial risk of putting your work out there.

Consultants, marketers, advertisers, app, and software developers, as well as IT professionals, videographers, website designers, and public relations firms, should consider E&O coverage. In today’s increasingly interconnected digital world, it’s an important financial protection. Even if you deal mostly in “intangible” deliverables, it’s still entirely possible to face a lawsuit.

Protect all your services, advice, and creative endeavors today with professional liability insurance through CoverHound. We will match your company with an affordable policy from a top insurer—for free!